boffoboffo

Didn’t take too long and we’ve moved on to Illinois. And you get there by crossing the river we were cruising on yesterday morning. The last time we’ll see the Mississippi River on this trip.

Getting ready to head back on the road for our last longer day of driving. Stopping in Toledo, OH which is roughly 8 hours away plus an hour when we get back to the eastern time zone.

After having our nice double wide hall down on deck 5 this past week I don’t want to ever go back to normal width halls. It was so beautiful.

Happy to hear I haven’t been wasting my time.

All three of us say thank you for the suggestion. You didn’t warn us to arrive thirsty with the size of their drink cups. The parking lot was quite full and there was a decent sized line to get in but we got seated within 10 minutes. They have a couple license plates on the walls. I guess this picture doesn’t properly convey the size of these cups. After a week without pop while on the ship a huge Dr Pepper really hit the spot. Steaming hot roll that was almost a meal on its own. Roast beef. Chicken pot pie. I’d highly recommend this place for sure.

A very uneventful drive today. Aside from Memphis I-55 really doesn’t go through anything. Tennesee welcomed us for all of 15 minutes but it did have more to see than the rest of the drive combined. Two things to see in Memphis. Hey! We were sailing on that river this morning. The whole reason we came this way on the drive home. Our first time in Arkansas and the 46th state we’ve been to. Only Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Hawaii to go. Time for one of those 16 day Alaska and Hawaii cruises out of Seattle, I guess? After an hour and one minute we made it to our fifth and final state of the day. Since it was recommended a few weeks ago I figured I’d better include this sign. Current plan is to eat there since it’s a couple minutes down the road, unless it’s too busy.

Welcome to Mississippi.

Got in line to get off the ship around 7. The line started moving at 7:12. Had to walk the length of the ship to exit aft out of the Manhattan Room. Then had to walk the length of the ship again to the gangway forward. Then through the maze to get to customs. Then decided the wait for the shuttle bus was going to be too long so we walked to the parking garage. Finally made it to the car at 8:09. Currently on I-10 heading west to I-55.

Our destination is in sight. This is our second straight cruise where the clocks changed for daylight savings on our last night and I am not a fan. Turns out we got up an hour earlier than we were planning to. At least the ship is quiet and nearly impossible to get around since all the stairwells on 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are roped off. I guess they’re trying to do a better job than they do in NYC of keeping people from lining up early.

Everything is packed up and ready to go. Just heading off to the buffet for our final meal onboard. They have the stairwell on deck 5 roped off so the only way I could get upstairs was on the elevator. Not happy about that. Back on cell service and it’s nice to have decent internet speed again.

As a non-snorkeler I would defer to those who replied beneath you. I will say that I didn’t notice many people snorkeling on the beach and the snorkeling excursion seemed to be the most popular one. I take that as a sign that if you want to snorkel you’re best to do it elsewhere.

Down to my last 7 minutes of free internet but getting close to the Mississippi where I should be able to get back to regular cell service and not have to struggle so much with this site combined with ship internet. Went out for a walk or to play basketball this afternoon but it was raining and the wind had picked up so I came back in. About an hour later the rain had stopped so I walked some more Waterfront for a while. That pretty much killed the afternoon until supper time. Stopped at O’Sheehan’s so my wife could get a milkshake which now gives us a final balance owing of 13¢. It’s nice having free money to spend on board. Were going to go to Savor for supper since we ate there for breakfast and lunch but they had a 30 minute wait while Taste we could be seated right away. Worked out great as we had a really good waiter for the night that just seemed to be having a lot of fun. He did get my wife some cookies for desert so that’s a second way in addition to the Studio Lounge that you can get cookies. Went out and did another lap of the Waterfront and it was different to see all the lights from the other ships around. Not used to that when sailing from New York City. In the end I set what I’m sure are personal single day cruise records of just over 30,000 steps and 21km total distance walked. Would have been more if not for the rain. Now comes the problem that the cruise is nearly over and I’m starting to think it’ll be nice to get home and back to a regular schedule but we still have two-and-a-half days of driving ahead so the holiday still isn’t over yet. At least the rest of it should have more reliable internet. Supper was a Caesar salad, bratwurst, and chocolate lava cake.

Spent some more time out on the Waterfront. It’s become mostly overcast so I’m enjoying the less sun and slightly cooler temperatures. Just spent some time hiding ducks for the crew. Had lunch at Savor because the had peanut buttercup cheesecake and we always plan our cruise around the peanut buttercup cheesecake. Less sunny. Caprese salad. Cheeseburger. Seems to be one of the few remaining ways to get beef in the MDR. Peanut buttercup cheesecake.

A bit before bed time last night my wife decided she’d better use some of that OBC to get an O’Sheehan’s hot fudge sundae. Amazingly it seems well worth the $4 price despite the fact that ice cream is readily available for free in many other places on the ship. The ship did the smart thing and we’re staying on eastern time for today, so now we don’t need to change the clocks for daylight savings again tonight. Was up at 5:30 this morning to finally get in some time with the ship to myself. Already had in 8km of walking before the sun came up. We went to Taste or Savor for breakfast(already forgotten which one). It was quiet when we got there around 8 but when we left about an hour later there was a line and pagers being handed out. Fruit salad. Loaded breakfast potatoes. Pancakes. Supper menus for tonight. One of our travel bags is in the stages of falling apart so we stopped at the gift shop as they have a Hooked on Cruising duffel bag which after our 15% discount used up all but $3 and change of our OBC. Looks like another sunny day but the seas aren’t too rough and the wind is not strong, so it should be a nice sail.

Last post apparently allowed me to post pictures but errored out in the process so I didn’t get a chance to post commentary. Fortunately there’s not much to say. Lunch was O’Sheehan’s Cobb salad and spinach and artichoke dip. Then we walked the waterfront and watched the Harmony sail away about half an hour before us. Once again everyone was back on board within 10 minutes of all aboard time and we were pulling away from the dock 6 minutes early. Marina security walked by and they look a bit more hardcore than anything we’ve seen at any other port. Oh, and it took almost two full days but we finally got that partial game of bowling taken care of. They just erased the charges from our account instead of crediting it back. Freestyle daily for day 7: We’ve realized that we only have one full day left of our cruise and had spent less than half of our shareholder OBC, so we wasted some money on arcade games. Too scared to try bowling again. So many people call NCL the cruise line that nickel and dimes you and we’re going to have to force ourselves to spend an extra $100 on board. Buffet for dinner although all the dining venues seemed much emptier tonight than they have been the last few days. They had turkey in the carving station. I had some cheese instead.

Last post as I get caught of with the events of today. I woke up early and decided to go out and wander aimlessly for a bit. The deck was once again very wet but shaping up to be another sunny and hot day. My wife seems to be coming down with a cold of some sort, so it’s probably going to be a short and quiet day since she won’t want to do much. I was up even before the chandelier woke up. The Harmony of the Seas, which was in Roatan with us two days ago found us again this morning. They docked right before us. Pulling into the pier by moonlight. With no excursions booked for the day we had no rush to get off the ship so we had a leisurely breakfast at Savor. Got there around 7:30 and there were only a handful of other tables seated so it was much quieter than I’m sure the buffet was. Pretzel roll sandwich. Scrambled eggs don’t work that well on a sandwich but it was good. My side of bacon was very generous today. Side note:they have run out of strawberry jam and only have orange marmalade or apple jelly left. The sun getting ready to make an appearance today. Seas are fairly rough as well with a decent breeze. It’s been mostly calm up until this point of the cruise. Too big and too many people on board for me to ever want to try it. I can’t say this looks like much fun. From this angle the Breakaway almost looks as big as the Harmony. All told we got off the ship around 8:30 and we’re back on by 10:30. It feels like Niagara Falls where they have dozens of gift shops available but once you’ve gone into one and seen all the cheap junk they have to offer you’ve seen them all. The crowds were big, my wife was tired of being handed free samples of skin moisturizer and they were playing the Macarena so it felt like time to go. Went past the Manhattan Room which had tonight’s menu posted, so I’ll add that here. Nothing that really jumped out at any of us, so we’ll probably do our first supper time trip to the buffet for this cruise. That means lunch will probably be at O’Sheehan’s again. The problem with port days when you’re back on the ship by lunchtime is the two options that are open for lunch can get boring pretty fast. Whew! I’m caught up again.

Food pictures from yesterday. Lunch at O’Sheehan’s was the pub hot dog. MDR menu for the night. Cream of Broccoli soup. It was kind of bland. Mozzarella and plum tomatoes. Baked Walleye Cod Fillet. Fig and apple cobbler. Hard on the teeth but pretty good.

Other pictures from the island up next. Not much to say for any of these pictures.

Next up are pictures from our excursion yesterday. This is roughly how close to the ship the manatee area was. There’s a whole lot of manatees in this picture just beneath the surface of the water. Bird Island. Bird tree. In the mangroves. Iguana lawn. Where the rich people live.

So those 4 pictures of today’s freestyle daily took nearly 10 minutes to upload. Currently things seems to be moving faster, so quick photo dump of the last day and a half upcoming. Good morning from off the coast of Belize. Buffet breakfast hidden under some cheese. It was a peaceful walk since most people were being driven down in their golf carts.

Image downloading is too slow again right now, so I’m going text only and will add pictures when able. My 150 minutes of free internet are gone and I’ve got about 100 of my mom’s minutes left. Cruise critic has just not been working as well for uploading pictures quickly like other social media outlets are. Got up a bit early this morning and did a couple laps of the Waterfront. Must have rained overnight as everything outside was very wet. The sun was just coming up and it was obvious we were in for yet another day filled with sunshine and intense heat. Went to the buffet for breakfast since we were scheduled to dock at 8 and we had an excursion for 8:15. Took advantage of our deck 5 cabin by waiting just around the corner from the exit and merged into the line as it started coming down. Made it to the marina by 8:10 and sat there for 30 minutes until we finally got started. We did the Placencia lagoon wildlife and mangroves excursion. About an hour and a half in length and starts pretty much around the corner from the island. There were a bunch of manatees in the water poking their noses and occasionally tails out of the water. Taking pictures of them is pretty much impossible. In the mangroves we saw plenty of birds. My wife may eventually post pictures of them from her real camera. Past the mangroves there were some dolphins out in the open water. Once again pictures weren’t going to happen. It was an enjoyable excursion that I’d recommend if you’re eager to see some native wildlife in their natural habitat. Spent a bit of time on the island checking out the shops and wildlife encounter and beach and were back on the ship around 11:30. Once again, it was just too hot to be at the beach. And we got back too early that they didn’t have the cold wash cloth station set up outside the ship yet. A cold wash cloth would have been so nice right about then. Went to O’Sheehan’s for a quick lunch and it was surprisingly busy. We were seated right away but it was nearly full. After that we walked the Waterfront for a bit. In a telling sign of how hot it was there was no one sitting on the sunny side of the ship and almost every seat on the shady side was full, defying traditional ship passenger logic. Spent the next couple hours just relaxing and cooling off from the day before going to watch sail away from the deck 7 promenade. Everyone was back on board within 10 minutes of all aboard and we were pulling away from the pier a few minutes before our scheduled 4:30 departure. Next we got in line for the Manhattan Room for supper. A lengthy line and we got seated around 5:15. Turns out it was the Burn the Floor performance tonight. Wait staff was flying at impressive speeds as we were out of there in about an hour. Don’t think we’ve ever had a MDR meal that fast before. And that pretty much ends the part of the day where we’ll be doing anything. Costa Maya tomorrow, set to arrive at 7. We’ll be in no rush as we have nothing planned beyond wandering the port and then probably hiding from the uncomfortable heat.

After two straight nights of time changes it’ll be nice to stay in this time zone tonight. Especially since I guess we’ll be switching back to eastern time tomorrow night and then back to central time on Friday night then back to daylight savings time on Saturday night then back to eastern time on Monday night. I’m lost just trying to read that let alone figure out if I have the right time or not. It took talking to 3 different service desks but we’re supposed to be getting refunded back our money for bowling. More trouble than it needed to be but it’s hopefully taken care of. Just sitting around relaxing in our room tonight. It was a very hot and humid day and the heat just wore us out. Harvest Caye tomorrow morning at 8 so another early start especially with an excursion at 8:15.

All aboard was at 4:30 with sail away at 5 so we went out to the deck 7 promenade to watch. Everyone was actually on board by 4:38 and we pulled away from the dock at 4:58. Headed down to Savor for dinner which opened at 5. We got down there around 5:15 and there was a line. Took about 10 minutes and then we got seated right away. Cheesy mashed potato croquettes. Roma tomato salad. New York strip steak Fruit plate. Cannoli.